A Certain Metamorphosis || Rosalie Hale

Chapter 16 - An Unseen Addition

While not perfect, the afternoon spent at the family home seemed to have made Bella relax around Edward's siblings. After weeks of avoidance, she was suddenly integrated into the family dynamic. The gossip surrounding the couple also seemed to dampen as they finally joined the Cullens at their lunch table.

Lily kept true to her word of forcing Bella to share the food her other siblings brought for the day. Most of the talking was between Edward, Bella, and Alice. Honestly, Lily had never seen Alice so enthusiastic about lunchtime. It was using her siblings' most dreaded part of the day. They hated being surrounded by the smell of the hundreds of students and the stench of human food. These factors combined with worry over Jasper tended to dent Alice's mood ever so slight. However, Bella's presence seemed to distract her. Alice wasn't lying when she stated earlier that the two would be great friends. Alice had already almost convinced Bella that the two of them should hang out alone. Lily was happy for her sister.
This doesn't mean lunch was smooth sailing. Bella was still obviously uncomfortable around certain members of the coven, especially Jasper and Rosalie. Jasper appeared stiffer than normal at the table now. His power was tough, but he was strong. His stillness, however, was not human. The animal inside raged under the cold demeanor. Lily did note that Alice constantly keeps her hand on some part of him to ground him. Lily wondered if that was what Rosalie was doing, grounding herself in the presence of the intruder.

With Edward and Bella back at the table, Lily had retaken her spot between Emmett and Rosalie. Rosalie had made a habit of resting her hand on Lily in some capacity, most notably her knee. Lily can still recall the first time this happened. Bella had made some off-handed comment that made Alice laugh and Edward had wrapped an arm around the girl. Lily jumped as she suddenly felt the cold hand gripping her knee. Rose, herself, seemed to be surprised by her action. She moved to pull away, but Lily placed her own hand on top of hers silently letting her know it was okay. Lily knew Rosalie was having a hard time with everything, never mind the fact that she oddly loved the feeling of the older girl touching her. With Rosalie sitting next to the blonde human, Emmett and Lily tended to partake in their own conversation, only occasionally getting pulled into the large conversation. They talked about anything from sports to reality tv. Lily tried her best to drag Rosalie into these conversations and pull her attention away from glaring at the new human girl. She was mostly unsuccessful. Usually, a light squeeze of her hand would make the vampire relax slightly.

The other students just seemed to accept that Bella was now apart of their group. Lily was also impressed by Bella's stubbornness at times. She didn't let others opinions of her dictate her actions. Lily found it humorous how often this would fluster Edward who was sometimes at a loss of what to think or do without access to her thoughts. Bella even insisted on driving her old beat-up red truck to school more often than not. Which led to this moment almost two weeks after Bella was introduced to the family.

"You know, Rosalie wouldn't mind taking a look at your truck."

"What? What's wrong with the truck?" Her voice was getting defensive.

"Nothing. Great styling choice and it runs, but it is a bit of a deathtrap."

"It's perfectly safe. Some friends fixed it up for us."

"That's not reassuring. Rosalie is an amazing mechanic. Your truck is just going to give out one day. It sounds awful."

"Shut up about the truck. I like it. Also, I think Rosalie would just kill me for talking to her."

Lily huffed, "Oh, don't be so dramatic. Rose is perfectly harmless as far as you're concerned."

"Lily, she's really not. All she does is glare at me during lunch and I don't even try to look at her."